I Don't Love You Anymore
by Jack-O-Lanterns Light The Sky
Summary: A glimpse into the complicated lives of Hades, Ruler of the Underworld and his first love, Hera, Queen of Olympus, and how things got to be the way they are. Slightly AU as some of the myths and other "facts" are distorted for story purposes. (I've included Zeus and Persephone in the tags because they are mentioned in this story although they are not necessarily featured in it.)


**AN: Hello to one and all,**

 **Thank you for being avid followers of my writing, I greatly appreciate it. It does not go unnoticed, one's fans. This was written to help clear the clutter of ideas that is running around ones head demanding to be put on paper. (Or typed, as one would have it) BUT, that being said, I will try to update my other works and hope that this finds all of you well. Feel free to comment or PM me if you have any concerns or questions and all that jazz. Enjoy.**

 **-Jack**

"We can't continue doing this."

"There's nothing wrong with what we're doing."

"You can't be serious? You must know that what we're doing is wrong."

"Hera, please don't make a big deal out of this. It's really not that serious. Us spending time together it's not like it's used to be. You must understand this." Hades turned his stormy blue eyes to the love of his life and couldn't help but feel just a tad bit guilty. All the sneaking around he felt that maybe they were doing something wrong. "Hera, we aren't doing anything wrong. I've just missed our relationship."

Hera turned towards her brother and couldn't help but feel the dull ache in her heart but sadly she knew. It would never be the same, she had moved on, and although he claimed to have as well; he wasn't over it. He wasn't over her. She couldn't continue doing this to Persephone, she and only she was the rightful Queen of the Underworld. Perhaps in another lifetime, Hera and Hades would have been together, but not in this one.

"Fine. How is your wife?"

"Persephone is fine. A bit peeved, she's been asking me that perhaps in this lifetime we can revisit the topic of having children."

"And? What did you say?"

"I told her I'd think about it."

"What's there to think about? You love children and she'd make a great mother." Hera said while looking up at him from the comfort of his desk chair, her feet propped on top of the desk as he nervously paced in front of it.

"Yes there's no doubt about that. But I feel as if I'm betraying you if I have a child with her." He stopped and turned to look at her.

Hera sat up abruptly and looked at her brother and couldn't stop the urge that overcame her to slap him upside the head. "What do you mean betraying _me_?"

Hades had stopped his pacing as he looked her over as she hurled her accusation at him.

"All this time, it's all been a lie!"

"Hera don't say that. You know what I feel for you. I have never stopped loving you since the first time. Even after marrying my wife, I have never loved her the way I love you."

"That doesn't change anything and it most definitely doesn't help me. I told you when you asked me to bless your marriage to Persephone to let the feelings you have for me go. Time and time again I have told you to move on. To make your wife happy. To give your wife the children I know she wants. I can see it in her eyes when she looks at mine. She sees Ares and I know she hates me for it. I do not fault her for her envy, I have something that she wants, something you are unwilling to give her. All because you claim to love me?"

"I do love you. And I made a promise to you centuries ago that I would never have any more children if I couldn't have them with you. You let me agree to that promise, why have things all of a sudden changed?"

Hera looked at Hades from her position behind the desk and couldn't stop the anger welling up within her chest, she had had enough of this.

"Things have changed! They have changed from the moment I married Zeus! Can you not see that?!"

Hades looked back at the fiery eyes of his sister and love of his life and couldn't understand why she insisted on denying the love they shared for each other. It seemed that they would spend lifetimes in each other's company but then Zeus would ruin it with his involvement. Zeus always came and took her from his life.

"You didn't marry him for love. Or has that changed in the last millennium? Have you suddenly gone and fallen for the _golden boy_?" He said the words with such derision that Hera almost lashed out. It was held together by an ever thinning patience.

"Let us make one thing clear, dear brother. You will not speak upon my marriage or **_your_** King in such a tone again. Or I will forget that you are indeed my brother and ensue punishment myself." Hera said the ire evident in her voice.

Hades wanted to respond, wanted to lash out but could tell that this was the Queen talking and not just Hera. She rarely used her Queenly voice around him and never before had it been directed at him.

"Forgive me my Queen. I meant no offense. But Hera you must see that things can be different in this lifetime . We can be together, neither of us are married in this life."

"I know that things can be different, but I don't want things to be different." Hera said while looking directly at him, he could see the sadness in her eyes as she said it, she couldn't possibly mean it, could she?

"Of course they can. We can have the life we were denied all those years ago when you were stolen from me. We can be a family, Ares will see me as his father." Hades said, he didn't know who he was trying to convince her or himself.

"Things can never be as they once were. You of all people must know that."

"What do you mean? I still love you, I don't see how things have changed."

"But they have!The love you so claim to have towards me, it died the moment you didn't fight for me. Yet, you fought for **her**. I knew then that she was special, it's why I blessed your marriage. It's why I've stayed away. Why I've let you build your life with the woman you fought for!"

Hades looked at her and realized that she had given this much thought. Hera never said any of this to him, in any of their shared lifetimes. She never once agreed to his crazy plans of marriage or of starting a family. She had always just kept quiet, and before he ever got the chance to set anything in motion, Zeus would be there stealing her away as he had the first time.

"I tried telling you. I really did, you broke my heart far worse than anything Zeus has ever done to me. When he began courting me, I assumed you would stake your claim. Tell him that we were in love and that we were going to create a life together. But you didn't, you allowed me to be courted. Zeus showed me things I never dreamed were possible, he showed me that he was willing to try. You, you just gave up without a fight. Even after all the betrayals, he has never once given me doubt that he is willing to fight for me. So I moved on, I knew that the love we had wasn't deep enough to make even you, Aidoneus, fight for me. I moved on, with someone who I didn't have a doubt loved me probably more than I have ever loved him. But Zeus has never given me reason to doubt his willingness to fight for those he loves. And if I know anything about my husband is that he loves me."

"How can you say that? That I never fought for you? I loved you!" Hades roared now standing with his hand on the desk fuming at Hera's assertion of their relationship.

"Yes! And that wasn't enough. I wasn't enough; at least not for you. It broke my heart again when word spread that you had taken Persephone as your wife, but I understood. Any love I had for you withered when you showed up to Olympus and faced a furious Demeter and an equally miffed Zeus. For the young Spring Goddess you were willing to go to war, but for me? You never looked back." Hera said while looking up at him her luminous emerald depths swam in unshed tears.

Hades walked away from the desk and began to pace back and forth in front of her. He couldn't understand her, if she claimed not to love him then why had she allowed herself those lifetimes they had spent together. The why of it all is what infuriated him the most.

"If you claim to not love me then why? Hmm? Why spent those fleeting moments with me? Why make me believe we had a chance?"

"Because it was a nice fantasy. It was a nice way for me to experience what she does. She gets you for the rest of her life. She gets to hold you and love you and give you all the joys in the world. Yet you still come to me. It has broken her heart too, you know. You've made her feel inadequate, your lovely Spring Goddess. She doesn't understand why you don't love her the way she loves you, why after all these years you've yet to have children with her. Why you act like you settled for her. Why it seems that she is not enough."

"You cannot possibly know these things. You don't even speak to my wife." He sneered.

"But I do. She seeks my counsel as the Goddess of Marriage I give her the advice that I can. But how can I continue to listen to her cry and bemoan the fact that you do not or cannot love her? I never wanted to hurt her, for she and she alone was innocent in our dealings." Hera said while standing up to pour herself a drink.

Hades stopped in his pacing to look at the mother of his child and the possible love of his life. Could she be right? Had he unintentionally harmed Persephone by marrying her? Was he no better than Zeus? By marrying Persephone he had damned her to a loveless marriage like he believed Hera to be in?

"You lie. My wife knows that I love her. Not in the same way I love you, but still love her nonetheless." He said while still speaking to her back, he watched her hand tighten on the glass tumbler she held in her hand, with what he knew to be scotch, the way her grip tighten on the glass, he could tell she had a tight hold on her barely controlled anger. Why she would be mad he didn't understand.

Hera turned towards Hades after taking a moment to compose herself, it wouldn't do to have to clean blood off her newly polished wood floors. The thought of having to ask Argos to find a way to clean Hades' blood from her floor would be delightful. For not much fazed Argos, but she would bet that Hades being dead by her hand, nonetheless, would definitely throw the ever knowing man off balance. And that made her smile almost evil when she turned back towards Hades and met his gaze before responding, "Does she now?" Hera was tired of being nice to Hades, in order for him to understand what she was saying she had to resort to being the cold ruthless Queen she was rumored to be.

Hera filled her glass one more time, yet she didn't take a sip. Instead she arched her eyebrow at him in a withering look while she walked towards him.

"Your wife, the ever sweet innocent spring goddess, Persephone, believes that you have never loved her, and she came to me to ask for a dissolution of **_your_** marriage. That doesn't sound like someone who knows that they are loved. No in fact that sounds like someone who is done waiting around for the man that she loves to finally give up this love he feels for another and love only her. No, for although she is one of my husband's bastards; even she deserves love and happiness and I thought you were that man, the one to give it to her, but no. It seems that you are just as selfish as Zeus, for you think of no one else's happiness but your own. I do not know how many times I have to repeat myself for you to fully understand what it is that I am saying. You and I will never be together. **EVER**. Before you protest and try to convince me that we can make this work, let me finish before you answer." Hera now stood in front of him, he could almost feel the anger that she radiated, almost as if it were another person in the room with them.

He had seen Hera angry before but never like this, her presence usually filled an entire room when she entered, but with Hera enraged as she was now, now it seemed as if all the oxygen had been robbed of the room and all the available space had been filled with her anger, it almost wrapped itself around him. Almost as if in her anger she were trying to suffocate him.

"You and I will never be together because I have not loved you like you love me. I have always been selfish and Zeus has allowed me to be selfish with my love. I have and always will, love being Queen of Olympus more than I wish to be Queen of the Underworld. That may be what your Queen wants but it has never been what I wanted. No one really fears you or your Queen. No one thinks twice about crossing either you or your wife. For what can you honestly do? Nothing. You don't even cause fear amongst our own kind, and you think being your Queen that would somehow change how people view you? Ha! You're only fooling yourself, _your Majesty_. For no one fears a mere spring goddess and her lord of the dead. I, on the other hand, invite fear with just the mention of my name. No one would ever think of crossing **_me_** or **_my_** King for fear of retribution."

She was now standing directly in front of him and as she tilted her head back to get a good look at him, he saw it. The truth in her eyes, she did not love him.

"So you see, being your wife would not only do nothing for me, but it would be a loveless marriage. And I would never do that to you... even though we will never be together as we once were, you can start actually living your life with your wife. Who even after all these lifetimes continues to marry you in hope; that perhaps that time she will finally have all of you. So tell me again that you love me, and I will finally end you as my husband wished to do during the rebellion, but even then I was thinking of your wife's happiness and I made him swear that he wouldn't harm you. But me? I'd end you without a second thought to you and your wife. You should have learned your place centuries ago. The Christians have an interesting commandment, 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife,' you should take that to heart for my husband doesn't take to kindly to having his wife ogled, you saw what happened to Ixion when he tried. You will be no different."

"Zeus does not care about you, he has shown you that countless times when he sleeps with others. So do not think that the fear of inciting his wrath scares me." Hades uttered, even if he knew that she spoke the truth, for even if Zeus and Hera weren't married, Zeus made it a point to let any God that felt they could try to take his wife, that Hera would always belong to only him. For even if they lived separate lives with others, they always ended up together, seemingly as if by his manipulation.

"It should, you are alive on my husband good graces and the love he has for me. It is the only reason he has allowed you to live this long and be this insolent. He knows of your constant disrespect towards not only him but our marriage. So tell me again how you are not scared of him. If you'd like, I can call him right now and we can all have this discussion together. Hmm? Nothing to say now?" She walked around him almost the way a lion stalks its prey before it devours it.

Hades backed away from Hera and her anger it was true what they said about the Queen, in her anger she did not see anything but let the rage control her every action, and even in those moments where others thought she was unhinged and wild, he knew she held her anger in check and didn't let her consume her for even he knew that she would lose her mind if she did. And the only person who could stop her was dead, or so they believed. But only Hera knew where Kronos really was and she was keeping that secret to herself until Chaos called her back.

"Forgive me my Queen, I meant no disrespect towards his majesty or towards your marriage." He said through gritted teeth, hating how sour the words tasted leaving his mouth.

Hera reveled in Hades' discomfort, it made for quite the entertainment to see the ever stoic righteous King of the Underworld ask for forgiveness especially when it concerned Zeus. "Let's hope it doesn't happen again. Now, why don't we discuss how you can win your wife back? I do love to see married people stay together, and I'm actually hoping that you get your head out of your ass and treat Persephone like the Queen you've made her by marrying her."

"Why would you help me?"

"Because I owe her a favor, and even if she doesn't know that I'm involved, I'll consider my debt paid and I can finally move on with my husband and my life."

"What would you owe Persephone?"

"That is between the Spring Goddess and I, now why don't we plan your wedding?"

"Hera, you can't be serious? I'm not sure Persephone would even be willing to marry me this lifetime."

"Leave that to me brother, I'll make sure your wife not only marries you but that she doesn't have a doubt in her mind that your heart belongs to only her and no one else. For even you knew before this that your heart has not belonged to me since I said, 'I do' to Zeus."

"How could you have possibly known that? I didn't even know that." He said as she walked toward the bookshelf she had along one side of her office and pulled out various books, she smirked over her shoulder as she dropped one of the books on her desk.

"Sweetheart I know what lies in God's heart, it's why I'm so good at what I do. I know how to bring out the best and worst in the Gods and Goddess, it's another wonderful trait I've been blessed with. Now, let's get planning, you have a bride to woo."

This time when he walked over to Hera's side he knew that the love he felt for her was that of a brother towards his sister and things had truly changed for them, although they had a child together and that would always bind them, he couldn't take responsibility for raising him for Ares would only ever see Zeus as his father and fatherhood to Ares wasn't all it was hyped up to be, of that he was sure. But he would always love the boy for he had been a product of the love he and Hera had shared for each other.

But now he had to worry about his wife and winning back her heart just as he had when he had first seen her. And with the help of Hera, he'd have her back in no time. Of that he was sure. This was a long overdue conversation and he was glad to have finally gotten it out in the open all those unsaid things that were always left between them. Now he knew exactly where she stood with him and the impossibility of them ever being together. He accepted that and focused instead on the future he would have with his wife.


End file.
